TY - JOUR
AU - Depetris-Chauvin,Emilio
AU - Weil,David N.
TI - Malaria and Early African Development: Evidence from the Sickle Cell Trait
JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL - No. 19603
PY - 2013
Y2 - October 2013
DO - 10.3386/w19603
UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19603
L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19603.pdf
N1 - Author contact info:
Emilio Depetris-Chauvin
Department of Economics
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Santiago de Chile
E-Mail: edepetris@gmail.com
David N. Weil
Department of Economics
Box B
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-1754
Fax: 401/863-1970
E-Mail: david_weil@brown.edu
AB - We examine the effect of malaria on economic development in Africa over the very long run. Using data on the prevalence of the mutation that causes sickle cell disease we measure the impact of malaria on mortality in Africa prior to the period in which formal data were collected. Our estimate is that in the more afflicted regions, malaria lowered the probability of surviving to adulthood by about ten percentage points, which is roughly twice the current burden of the disease. The reduction in malaria mortality has been roughly equal to the reduction in other causes of mortality. We then ask whether the estimated burden of malaria had an effect on economic development in the period before European contact. Examining both mortality and morbidity, we do not find evidence that the impact of malaria would have been very significant. These model-based findings are corroborated by a more statistically-based approach, which shows little evidence of a negative relationship between malaria ecology and population density or other measures of development, using data measured at the level ethnic groups.
ER -